6- Amber, and her Brand New Murder House
Hello, and welcome, my ghost story lovers! This is Beyond the Veil, Paranormal Tales, and I'm your host, Becca!
Let me start by apologizing for the quality of my voice these last few Podcast episodes! I've been fighting a mystery illness and my voice is still a little harsh and raw. Thankfully, I'm feeling much better now. My lock-down is over, and I hope my voice catches up with me soon! Anyway!
If you are new to the blog and podcast, while you should be able to pop in and enjoy any individual episode on its own, I do explain some things that make me different, as I go along, here. So you might want to pop back to Episode 1 and start there. But as always, follow your heart!
Join me here as I sit beside the crackling fire, beneath my fuzzy blankets, and listen to real people's spooky stories, told in their own words. Some of these spooky stories may contain adult language. Listeners, be advised.
The names of ALL affected parties have been changed, to protect the privacy of the storyteller, but you have my word: All stories told her are real, to the best of my knowledge.
So, start your own fire, grab your own blanket and hot drink, and settle in, as we take a peek at the world that lies, Beyond the Veil.
Tonight is Episode 6: Amber, and Her Brand New Murder House
As time slips away from me and I inevitably get older, I have come to realize the friendships that are worth keeping are the ones where you can drift apart as life gets busy, and come back together when things get real. We catch up over a glass or five of wine, laugh and cry together, and part ways again until the next time the stars align and we can arrange our schedules once again.
For me, Amber is one of those long-term no-matter-what friends. We met ages ago when our kids were little, and she was fresh out of her old state of California, where her asshole husband had run off with some college girl. Amber and I hit it off immediately, our kids made instant friends, and we ended up spending that whole first day together. I showed the three of them a fun local park, and even invited them over for dinner that night.
And so the years passed by, our kids grew older, we each moved around to different homes in the area, and life got busy, as it will. Over the last few years we'd fallen a bit out of touch, and when she moved again, this time out to my neck of the woods, we resolved to get together for a coffee and a chat, to catch up.
That conversation started via text, and she conspiratorially mentioned a pendulum she was using these days. I could sense her hesitation at mentioning it, but she added that she knew I was not like her other friends and might know what she was talking about. And of course, I did!
We exploded in conversation, I told her I had a TON of stuff to show her, if she was into that stuff, and we arranged a good day to meet up, on my next midweek day off. Our kids would all be at school, and we could really dish in her new dining room.
When that morning came, I dropped my kids off for the day, and headed to Amber's new place. I triple checked the address in my phone before walking up to the door, certain I was going to show up at the wrong house. I hate ringing the wrong bell. Thanks, anxiety! Thankfully, that morning, I got it right.
Amber opened the door with a loud and happy, “Heeeey!” I'd come to associate with her. Her deep summer tan glowed, sun-kissed hair showed blonde hints on nutty brown, and that day she rocked black workout gear with bare feet. I wondered if she was doing yoga these days, and added that to the list of things we should do now that we're closer to each other again. She and I went to our very first yoga class together, ages ago, and I've been hooked ever since!
I followed her inside, closing the heavy door behind me, and as I did, I noted the doorknob hole in the wall. The plaster was hanging on by a thread, the failed door stopper still attached, and I thought to myself, “Ugh, kids. I should fix mine before that happens.” My own stopper was removed at the moment, for repair. None of them are perfect for preventing holey walls when you have teenagers, though. Sometimes they don't know their own strength, and you just gotta patch and plaster!
The door closed behind me, and as I turned to head up the triple stairs into the sitting room, I felt a shift in the air. I smiled to myself as Amber chatted away about how she just knew I'd be open to the pendulum stuff, and she's so glad she said something! I followed her through the sitting room, through the galley-style kitchen, past a knee-height hole in the wall, and into the dining room. Down another little set of stairs was a living room with a tv. We settled in at the table and I started unpacking my slew of stuff I brought to show her.
She showed me her pendulum, a beautiful rose quartz piece on a delicate silver chain, and I opened up my jewelry sorter full of crystals and other stones. We talked about how you can pick them up and hold them and they each have their own vibration, if you are sensitive and can feel it. To me, they almost hum. When I'm shopping my hands will go all sweaty and tingly when I pick up a stone I need to bring home with me. It's how they call to me, and how I know it's something I really do need to buy.
While she sat there feeling out the different stones, and exclaiming over how different they all were, I pulled out my different Tarot decks that wanted to come along, and my dowsing rods sat in my bag, humming. I took that as a hint and pulled them out to show her, starting by putting them in the forward or “ready” position. I started to tell Amber about them and how they work, and they suddenly started to shift, unbidden.
I felt a presence, and told any spirits that arrived with me that now was not their turn to talk, and asked that they step away. The energy shifted. “Can you cross for me, to say 'yes'?” I asked, and they crossed like usual. Amber's eyebrows shot up and her eyes went wide.
I grinned. “Thank you,” I said, and before I could establish 'no', out of nowhere, they started spinning around. Like helicopters. Strong enough they were moving my hands. I held them away from my body, just letting them spin, and I looked up to meet my friend's eyes.
Now, I have a mad case of resting bitch face, and I also don't hide my emotions on my features very well, unless I'm at work in Plastic Barbie Customer Service mode. My face must have said something, because Amber asked, “Is that bad?”
I schooled my features, and answered calmly, “It's just surprising. Your house must have a LOT of energy or something. They don't usually do this so fast.”
“Oh,” She said, shrugging, “Well that's not surprising. I'm pretty sure there was a murder here. The last owner lady. I think she's still here.” She said this all casual-like, as if living in a murder house is just par for the course.
My eyebrows shot up, my interest piqued, but I needed the rods to behave if we were going to get anywhere. I reset them, and had a little talk with them. “Yes, I know. I'm glad you're excited to talk to me, and I'm glad to talk to you too. But I need to know what you're saying when you answer me. Please just cross for 'yes' and open wide for 'no', okay?” I held the rods in the ready position again and they crossed simply that time. “Okay, now uncross,” I said and waited a moment while they obeyed, pointing straight ahead again.
Amber sat watching this exchange, fascinated, and added, “The neighbors say a lot of stuff. And Zachary has seen a woman standing in his room at night,” She said, eyes wide for effect.
Oh, no. “Does she ever do anything to him?” I asked, breath catching, thinking of my younger son, who was also 15. My kid would not handle that well if it was him. “She's another one. She needs you,” I heard vaguely, via clairaudience. I nodded to myself and began choosing my words, to offer help, if help could be had.
She shook her head, “No, she just stands there. It scares him though.”
“It's good she doesn't touch him,” I nodded solemnly, and added carefully, “So, I'm actually starting a little no-charge spiritual cleansing service with a friend of mine who you haven't met... For paranormal problems happening to people.
“I could do a walkthrough if you want. We want to go in blind if we can, at least me, so this will be interesting. You'd be my first official blind case,” I said, hoping I wasn't offending her by offering. I was mostly curious what I could pick up without prompting, in such a location.
“Oh my god YES!” She breathed, and I nodded. I closed my eyes and took a few deep cleansing breaths, then opened myself up even more than I naturally was when I walked in to the house.
I tend to wander around a bit... guarded. I put up wards to fend off the stuff I don't want bogging me down as I go about my day. Some people put off a very strong energy and I block myself from it. I'll pop up something of a psychic bubble around myself to filter out all the empathic things, mint gum only goes so far, and I definitely need a break from it all, at times. The bubble trick really helps a lot.
For walk-throughs, though, I need to pull all of that down and just go in as myself. It's like turning up the volume on a place. It's hard to describe, but pulling down those walls when I'm working like this really helps me focus on the weird. It also can leave me open and raw, emotionally, like the Dowsing Session with the native woman, back in Episode 4. It's a mixed bag, but it's a necessary thing, for me, for this kind of work.
Once “open,” I was immediately drawn to the mirror on the wall in the dining room. I stepped closer to that mirror, and the rods crossed. I tested this, lifting the rods over the top of the mirror. They stopped. In front of the mirror? They crossed. To the right of the mirror, they uncrossed. And to the left of the mirror they uncrossed. As I settled them in front of the mirror again, they began to spin.
My eyes narrowed, “Okay,” I said, and took a deep breath, looking past the mirror on the wall and examined what I could see in the reflection. Behind me, in the reflection, was the short stairwell to the living room. Not a great place for mirrors, paranormally-speaking.
“Mmm... It feels... portal-y,” I said carefully, and gestured at the mirror. “This being at the top of the stairs, even though they're over there, might be part of the problem. I think it could swap with that artwork over there, and be fine, though,” I said, gesturing across the room to a painting about the same size as the mirror.
Her eyes narrowed and I explained, “A medium friend told me not to have mirrors by stairs at all. The spirits get confused, thinking it's a stairway to heaven, and they can get stuck in the house.”
Amber nodded and I had a sudden thought, wondering if there was a hole there too, and pulled the mirror away from the wall. I found only smooth wall behind it. Given the circumstance, I turned to her and asked, “The hole behind the front door. Was that there when you moved in?”
“Oh, that was Zach when we moved in,” She waved it away and rolled her eyes at her child.
“And the one in the dining room?” I asked, meaning the kitchen and using the wrong word. Fibro-fog is fun, y'all.
“That one was there when we moved in. There are a lot of things like that in the house,” She said, gravely. “You'll see.”
“Fun,” I thought sarcastically, nodding to her as a deep unease settled into my stomach. I asked, “You said you sage all the time. When you sage the house do you get the mirrors too?”
“The mirrors?” She asked. “No...” She trailed off, worry creasing her brow.
“Kay. When you sage, are you getting the whole house, burning incense in one room, or what?” I asked. She'd said she sages, but that could mean a lot of things. She'd said she knew her house was safe, but I wanted to know how she knew that.
“Mostly I burn incense in my room or down here,” She said cautiously, “Why?”
“Hmmm... Have you ever, like, started in the basement and done the whole house all at once?” I asked carefully, hoping she'd done this at least one time. Maybe before moving in, or when she first started her craft as a baby witch?
“No, not all at once,” She admitted, sounding worried. “I usually burn it in here in this room and it kinda wafts around the house.”
I nodded, “Okay, that's something we'll need to do then,” the unease in my belly was churning itself into dread. I grabbed my bag and dug out some mint gum to settle my stomach so I didn't feel overly pukey while wandering the house. It's a physical side effect I often feel when ghost hunting or doing spirit work. The heavier it is, the more cautious I am.
“Okay,” She nodded. “I bet I have some sage around here somewhere, if I can find my stuff,” She said. “A lot of stuff has been going missing around here,” She shook her head and rolled her eyes.
I nodded and kept going through the house, knowing the dread would only lift when I saw what I needed to see. I went into the kitchen and my stomach lurched as I stepped in front of the refrigerator, and the rods crossed. “Weird,” I thought. “Oof,” I breathed, wincing, stomach gurgling. “Something. Here. Something happened here?”
I heard an unseen voice say, “Hit. Head.” I nodded and sighed sadly, stepping away from that spot and into the sitting room that faced the street. The rods pointed toward the couch, leading me there, then crossed over one of the seats. Only one of them. “She liked to sit here, maybe. Or something happened here.”
I moved to the front window, and the rods crossed there. “She stood here. She liked this room,” I said, a lovely rosy feeling surrounding me as I looked out onto the front lawn. “I think she watched out these windows from here,” I added, and the feeling went sour as my eyes tracked over to the driveway. “She watched for him to come home.” I shook the thought away and kept going.
I stepped down those little steps toward the front door and the rods crossed on the stairs. “Mmm... Mmhmm,” I nodded sadly and they uncrossed. I turned to the left, down a long hallway and realized it took me to the living room with the tv. The house layout is a circle. At least these two levels with the three little stairs.
“Not a great thing for an entity caught in a loop,” I thought. “Or someone fleeing on foot...”
I stepped into the living room and the rods crossed once I reached the center of the room. “Here in this room?” I asked, wrinkling forehead, not following what happened there. “Doesn't care about furniture in this one,” I shook my head, confused.
“Oh, that was us. That happened when we were here,” Amber pointed over my head to the ceiling fan. I hadn't noticed it before, but the light bulbs were missing from the fan.
“What was you?” I asked, brow creasing.
“Oh, I was arguing with my ex, Chaz. You met the asshole. Anyway, we were arguing and the bulbs all burst, out of fucking nowhere, while we were fighting,” Amber rolled her eyes.
“Jesus!” I gasped, and she laughed.
“I know! Girl, it's been crazy up in here,” She said, letting her Cali-girl shine through for a moment.
“Seems like it!” I said, shaking my head, not sure I wanted to keep going. I popped out into the yard for a quick walk around, and the rods spun when I stepped down onto the grass, and continued all over the yard.
I looked at Amber, a question on my face, and she laughed. “Uh... I've found some crystals out here. Like your crystals. Store bought ones. They weren't just in the ground automatically, I can tell you that.”
“Interesting...” I said, my eyes narrowed, and I nodded, then turned my attention to the spirit. “You were protecting against something?” The rods crossed. “I wonder what,” I thought. “You'll see,” I heard. Okay...
We stepped back into the house, and the heavy feeling returned. I hadn't realized it had lifted. The house was already a bit overwhelming, and I got the feeling I hadn't sensed anything yet. I resisted the urge to shield again, and stepped up the triple stairs into the dining room. As I did so, the rods crossed, then uncrossed as I hit the next half-level up.
I tested it, holding the rods over the stairs, and moving them away, and they crossed again each time as they passed over the stairs. My eyes were drawn to the mirror again, but I glared at it as I looked its way. I would probably need to do something about that.
I turned away from it, following where the rods pointed, and made my way up the first set of stairs, next to the kitchen. The stair had a landing there, and the rods crossed as I stepped onto the landing, on the right. Just above and across from the refrigerator.
The rods crossed and chills covered my arms as I saw a flash of a crouched figure there, a man, listening to a woman on the phone in the kitchen, on the other side of the half wall. “He watched her from here. When she was in the kitchen. Listening to her on the phone,” I breathed, and the rods crossed.
In my vision, the woman hung up. He stood and confronted her, throwing something at her from his vantage point. Something hit her and she fell. I shook the image away, and the rods pointed toward the landing's railing, over the entryway. I followed it there and it kept pointing outward, well past where I could follow. But my eyes followed, and the rods spun. There was a dent there, on the wall. It was high up, across from me, to the right of the door, over the triple stair.
“Was that there when you moved in?” I nodded at the dent as I asked, hollow, already knowing the answer.
“I never even saw that before. It must have been here before, yeah,” Amber said, shocked I found something in her house that she'd never even seen. I just nodded, and turned to head up the second half of the stair.
At the top, the rods spun around again. I looked around but didn't see anything at first. Then I saw the dent. It was a perfect place to shoot a basket from, so to speak. The arc was perfect. Goosebumps covered my skin again as dread built in my belly.
“He stood here,” I said softly. “When he threw it. Whatever he threw. He was stopping her from leaving.” I sighed. “She almost made it to the door,” I added, almost in a whisper. The rods continued to spin, until I asked them to stop again. I composed myself and said, “It was the big fight. Maybe the last one. The last time she tried leaving, for sure.”
“Huh,” Amber said, nodding, coming up the stairs behind me and walking down the hall. “I'm real curious what you'll think about it up here...” She said, watching me as I felt the area out.
I felt no draw into the laundry room so I ignored that for now, and the rods crossed as I stepped near a painting on the wall in the hallway. I pulled the painting away from the wall to look for another hole, but the wall was smooth. I asked the spirit, confused, “Do you like the picture?” The rods crossed, barely. Unenthusiastic.
I blindly turned to continue down the hall, planning on going to the room on the right and continuing like that until I got all the rooms. Maze-style. But Amber said, “You should come in here first,” so I turned to follow her.
As I stepped toward the door she led me toward, the rods spun again, like they did when I first got them out. A wave of nausea hit me, as Amber gestured at the linen closet wall that stood there. She asked, “Do you see it?” There was a large dent, clearly from a head, in the door. The person was shorter than I am, or they were not upright.
I saw a flash of a large hand on a curly dark head of hair. I saw the head meeting the door, and the hand letting go. I saw her face hit the door lever on the way down, and I winced at the sight. “I do,” I answered Amber, at last, certain I was going to be sick if I kept standing there in that spot.
I stepped forward into the master bedroom, and was drawn to the large window. This one overlooked the backyard. “She liked the windows, watching...” I said, seeing a different backyard, with a trampoline and a pair of very different children bouncing together. She smiled from her place there, but it didn't make any sense. She was too close, and couldn't stand like that, not with the window seat there. “Maybe I'm wrong. Or I just don't understand, somehow,” I thought.
“Love this bench!” I gasped, having a seat. It was pretty comfortable! “My window in my room has a vent in front of it so I couldn't do this, but I totally would if I could!”
“Aww, thanks! I put that seat there!” She beamed, proud of her workmanship. I just chuckled to myself and the vision once again made perfect sense.
I went from there into the master bath, but nothing really came of that other than knowing she loved her tub. It was huge and gorgeous, of course she did! I was drawn over to the couple's closets on one big wall. Nothing happened in front of the left one. “His,” I said, and stepped toward the right one. The rods crossed, “Hers,” I laughed.
Amber laughed and said, “Yes! There was still lots of her things all over the house when he left. It's like he didn't give a shit about any of her stuff.”
“I wonder why,” I scoffed, and took a break from the rods for the moment. The way they seem to work is by acting as a conduit, allowing the spirit you're communicating with to draw a little of your energy to make the rods move. I can break the connection at any time by setting them down, if needed. I used the excuse of letting Amber have a try with them, for a moment, but really I was a bit taken aback at how much the session was draining me that day.
I took the moment to collect myself a little bit, breathe and center. Amber explained the other woman a bit, as she knew it. “The other lady was a single mom, like me. Her name was Sue, and she was about my age when I bought this place, but, when she died. Her asshole husband, Marvin, by all reports, is a lot like my asshole ex, Chaz, who the lights exploded on. I feel like she's protecting me,” She smiled warmly, holding the rods, but they didn't really move much for her, so she handed them back.
“Oh, for sure, she was protecting you from him. She feels pretty connected to you,” I nodded.
Amber beamed. “I really feel like something drew me to this house. And because they all left all that mail around with her name on it and stuff, I know her full name. And I know his name because he was on the mortgage papers and stuff. I looked them up, Becca, and they got married like 5 months before this house was built. So they got married and did the house all at once.”
I nodded. That's not super odd, to get married and build your dream home. We made our way through the master bedroom door, past the still-nauseating area in front of the linen closet door, which I tried to ignore on that way past. I sucked on my gum, the minty oils nearly gone already. It's a rare thing for it to be so ineffective for me. My stomach rumbled loudly as I made myself walk down the hall to the smaller bedrooms.
The first bedroom on the right was unoccupied, and had some scattered furniture in it. Amber was using it as an overflow storage room, from the looks of it. The walls were painted blue, and I could tell it was once a child's room. The rods held steady until I stepped close to the closet. They crossed, in front of the closet on the right hand side, and I nodded to myself.
I was drawn even closer to the closet, and held the rods in there at their typical height, and felt the need to crouch instead. There, in the corner, inside the closet, the rods crossed. I had a vision of a shuddering male child, crouched small into the corner.
“They hid in here,” I said sadly, “When things were scary. The kids hid?” I asked softly, directing my question to the spirit. The rods crossed deeper, in confirmation. I nodded, without comment.
As I stood back up to leave, the rods crossed in front of the closet on the right side, again. I saw a flash of a woman with the same dark curly hair I saw earlier, standing there, in that spot. “Something... here?” I asked, and the rods crossed.
“Oh, yeah, this is the room Zachary saw her in. This used to be his room when we first moved in. She scared him and he moved into the basement,” Amber said, watching my reaction. “He said she stood by the closet.”
I nodded, understanding, and we checked out the last room on the right, which was painted a pale pink color. “Taylor's room?” I asked, meaning her 12 year old daughter, and Amber nodded.
The furniture in there was white, and something weird was going on with the bed. The mattress was askew and the slats seemed broken or out of place. The ceiling fan over the bed was broken too, but in a different way than the one in the living room. In Taylor's room, a fan blade had been broken downward, like someone had jumped up to hang on it and just the one blade broke from the weight.
I checked the closet, and found the same thing as in the boy's room, but on the left side of that closet. “She hid here,” I nodded as the rods crossed. “I'm so sorry they had to hear all that,” I sighed, and the rods crossed.
When I scanned the rest of the room, it was clear. I took a deep breath and headed down the stairs to check out the basement, the last level of the home. Amber's phone rang, and she ran off to chat with her client, waving at me to carry on without her. I had a sudden realization, that Zach had been upstairs when the spirit was bothering him, watching him sleep. And it seemed like it had stopped since he moved into the basement.
“Are you alone here?” I asked Sue, and for the first time the entire conversation, she did not answer me. I approached the stairs leading down, and she stayed back, in the living room. “Is there a reason you don't go downstairs?” I asked, and she still didn't answer. “Okay...” I said, eyes narrowed, as I stepped onto the basement stairs. “I guess I'll see you in a bit, then,” I said to Sue, and continued on, to see what I could sense.
My hands grew clammy as I descended, a sure sign of higher energy, or a need to be wary. The palms and fingertips began to tingle too, as I hit the final step down. And as I set foot on the floor in the den, the rods immediately began to spin, very strongly, moving my hands with their speed.
I felt a rising energy feeling, all around me, like... a big sheet, parallel to the floor, covering the entire room, and beyond it. And it was waving, in a wind I could not feel.
“I am a big and scary thing, and you don't want to mess with me,” It began, in a deep rumbling voice, and then it, stopped. It kinda like, cocked its head to the side, as I watched it in my mind's eye. I smirked at it as it realized I wasn't a typical person who can't interact with it, and it completely shifted gears at that. “Oh, sorry. I didn't realize. I was trying to make them go.”
I nodded, understanding, and said, “Hello. You're quite big, aren't you? You're... tied to the land here?” I asked, and the rods continued to spin. “I see. You're not real happy that all these people are here, huh? Well, you know, they can't help it that their house was built on your land. They're not the only ones, either. All these people are here in your place and it's just making you angry, isn't it?” The rods slowly stopped spinning. I explained to it... to him how to say yes and no with the rods, and continued.
“Well, you know how you scare one family and they leave? What happens? A new family moves in. You can scare them away, over and over again, but is that really how you want to spend your time? They're never going to all leave. Do you want to be angry forever?” The rods swung, listening. He seemed to agree that this situation was not ideal.
I felt eyes on me and looked up, to see Amber standing there watching my interaction from the basement stairs. I filled her in, saying, “This entity feels like... an elemental to me. Earth-based, this one. Maybe wind? But tied to the earth for sure. He's something... I feel like the Natives who lived here, before, would have worshiped him. And he looked after them. But the problem is he doesn't feel an affinity to the people here now, and they're just intruding on his space. Even though they don't mean to be.” She nodded, listening, brow furrowed.
I continued my chat with the elemental, “What if I could help you move somewhere else that won't ever have houses built there?” I asked him, seeing a jar with the earth he's tied to, in it, plus some crystals and other things to help keep him there, for transport.
The rods crossed, slowly. I nodded, “I would need your help to make it go well, and I need to check a few things in order to be sure I'm doing it properly, but does that sound good? Would you be okay with me helping you move to a big open place with lots of wind and no houses?” I pictured the area in my mind, to show him the rolling hills I had in mind. The rods crossed more enthusiastically that time, and I nodded.
“Yes, I think you'll be happier there, for sure. But for right now, I need you to stop bothering the people who live here. This isn't their fault, and I know you can be patient for me to come back, can't you?” I asked, and the rods crossed. “Okay, then. So you wait for me to come back and then we'll get on it.” The rods crossed again, and he kinda, stepped back to watch what I was doing, as I continued checking out the rest of the basement.
As we stepped into Zach's new bedroom space, in the only basement bedroom, past the bathroom, and down a hallway from the den, I asked the shadow-sheet elemental, “Have you tried talking to anyone besides me?” The rods crossed.
“Did you try talking to the boy who sleeps down here?” I asked, and the rods crossed. “Could he see you?” I asked, and the rods opened wide. “No? He didn't know you were there?” I asked, and the rods crossed. “Okay,” I nodded. Knowing the boy had seen the ghostly spirit of the former owner, but couldn't see this guy helped confirmed for me he was not human.
I said, “Thank you for talking to me, and being patient. Thank you for leaving the people alone while you wait. I will be back soon, I promise!” The rods crossed, then I felt him leave the house altogether. Amber and I headed up the stairs and settled in at the dining room table again.
I pulled out my Wildwood Tarot Deck, and did a reading for the property. The reading confirmed all the little details from the walkthrough, including approving of my plan to shift the elemental from the land to another place. Everything lined up, and Amber was beside herself, at the way everything tied up with a little bow!
She started telling me what she'd heard from the neighbors, now that we were done with the blind walk. The next door neighbor lady, Tammy, was the original owner for her property, and had known Sue pretty well. They would hang out, let the kids play, and talk over wine and a Xanny. The old family in Amber's current house was Sue, her daughter, her husband Marv, and his son. Their kids were all about the same age and it was how they met, outside one summer evening, letting the kids ride their bikes as the sun set and color streaked the sky.
Tammy said Sue confided in her that her husband Marv was a bit of a dick, and he definitely had a temper. She'd hear yelling from time to time, but Sue usually brushed it off when they talked, excusing his behaviour because he was drunk, or she'd made him mad by bringing things up. After a while, Sue came to Tammy, complaining about the neighbor woman who lived across the street, and how that other woman was trying to seduce her husband.
And when Sue's husband didn't come home after work, and would instead “go out for a beer with the guys,” Sue suspected he was seeing another woman, but not the neighbor. She was often home during those times he was out late. He'd come home drunk and go get in the shower right away, things he had never done before that.
But any time Sue brought it up or asked at all, it caused a huge fight. Some of the things Sue said to Tammy made Tammy worry for the safety of her friend, and sometimes she wondered if Sue was wearing long sleeves and scarves to cover bruises. Tammy said Sue seemed more scared than worried or annoyed, when talking about the issues with her husband.
Tammy was certain Sue's death wasn't an accident, like the doctors said it was. Of course, that information came from Marvin, who could have been lying. They'd ruled it an accidental overdose, mixing drugs and alcohol, but Tammy insisted Sue knew how to mix and match things safely. And she didn't drink that much to begin with, so none of that made any sense to the neighbor friend.
Tammy was sure it was something more sinister, but police never came by, and while Tammy was still reeling from the death of her friend, that asshole next door moved another woman in. And they immediately did some serious remodeling, ripping up the carpet and putting in hardwood floors, and stuff. The house wasn't even that old, and shouldn't have needed any work. The timing of it all was very suspicious.
Tammy took her concerns to the police, who told her there was nothing they could do, not if the death was ruled an accident. Her body was quickly buried at Evergreen Cemetery, and her obituary was short and simple. It didn't mention her daughter, nor her husband, or surviving parents.
The obit just said she was born on this day in this city, and passed away on that day in that city. I looked it up myself and it is one of the strangest obituaries I've ever read, for sure. No “survived by” section at all, no mention of her family. Nothing.
The lack of detail in the obituary and on the gravestone definitely stood out to Tammy as very suspicious, especially since Sue's husband moved on with another woman so fast. Tammy was certain the bitch who moved in was Marv's mistress. She had to be. Did he get rid of her friend to move that bitch in?? She was pissed.
Tammy tried to befriend the woman, but the mistress wanted nothing to do with her, and kept to herself. She learned through Marv's son, who still came over to play, that Sue's daughter had gone to live with her aunt, the day after Sue died. Poor kid. Still reeling from the loss of her mother and she's heartlessly dumped with relatives. Probably better than the alternative, given how he was acting, but still. Poor kid.
Because of these conversations with the neighbor lady, Amber started a deep dive into the internet, looking for information. It was a fascinating and sad true crime situation, but because police had ruled it an accident, there was nothing to do but look around online and draw conclusions.
Amber's initial round of research found Sue's Facebook page was still there. There were photos of the woman, smiling, and loving on her daughter. She was blissful at her wedding, and fresh-faced when out hiking the many trails we have here in Colorado. She was funny and had a lot of friends, and her friends were posting notes to their deceased friend, on her page. They miss her, they're sad for her family, and the like. That was the first time she looked, just after moving in and meeting the neighbor.
As Amber cleaned up the stuff Marv had left behind when he moved out, she kept finding old letters and official paperwork, in both Sue and Marvin's names. Using that, she hopped onto the El Paso County records office and looked them both up.
Marvin was Sue's only marriage, but Amber saw Marvin remarried just 2 months after Sue's death. That just raised red flags for Amber, and she shared the info with Tammy. Tammy confirmed his new wife was the lady he'd moved in, just after Sue's death.
And then there were police records that popped up, upon searching those three names. It seemed Marv had several arrests on record, most of them domestic violence related. Some were from before he married Sue, and some were afterward, including incidents with his new wife. Sue was on record, herself, for an assault charge. She'd attacked a woman in a parking lot, probably over her husband. The new wife's name only appeared on Marv's arrest record, saying she had pressed charges against her husband, after he hurt her.
Amber and Tammy were talking about it one afternoon, and Amber pulled up Sue's Facebook page again, and it was completely different than the first time Amber had found it. This time, the account had been stripped of all photos and was completely locked down. It no longer had her listed as married, and her friends list had been all but wiped out. Tammy gasped and looked at her phone, only to find she was no longer on Sue's friend list.
The two of them reasoned Marv must have known Sue's password and changed it, though why he'd wait a few years after her death to do it was strange. Amber had taken screen shots to send someone from the first round, so there was proof it had changed drastically, and recently. She got fresh screenshots to document the new changes, too, in case it happened again.
Then one afternoon, when Amber was outside with her kids, a pair of teenagers from across the street came over, acting tentative, but wanted to talk to her. Amber worried they were going to tell her something about her kids being mean or getting into trouble, but they wanted to tell her they'd seen something strange in the windows when the last people lived there.
They'd been too scared to go to the police about it, because they were home alone at the time. Their parents traveled a lot for work and the kids worried their parents might be in trouble for leaving them home alone, or something.
But they said they'd seen something strange at the house, that made them worried. They saw Miss Sue laying on the floor in the sitting room at her house, one night. The windows had gauzy curtains on them and the kids could see through them, from their bedrooms. They saw what looked to them like a man rolling her up, inside something, “Like a rug, or something,” They said.
Then the next day, the ambulance showed up at the house, and they found out she was dead. It scared them but they didn't know what they could do about it. They were certain the police would put them in Foster Care with their parents being gone, but the information ate at them while they sat on it for the two years that man continued living in that house. But when my friend moved in with her kids, they felt safer, and finally could break their silence.
One neighbor reports said she was found in her bed, deceased, in the morning when Marv woke for the day. At least, that's the story he was telling. When we were walking the house, Amber reported some people said Sue died in the hallway outside the master bedroom door, where the dent in the linen closet door was. How any of the neighbors would have known any of this is a great question, though. I remained skeptical, with all the conflicting reports.
It sounded to me like a lot of rumor chatter, which would be understandable, given the situation, but rumor isn't fact. And it's not like we had access to her autopsy report to see what the coroner had actually ruled. But we did have a spirit to chat with.... so I got the dowsing rods out again, and had a little chat with Sue.
I asked her if she understood why the new family was in her house, and she seemed confused. She seemed to think the children in the house were hers, and I got the feeling she was protecting those kids. She stood by the closet to watch over Amber's son while he slept, to be protective. I wondered if that was something she did when Amber was dating Chaz the asshole, but couldn't confirm the timing. And time is confusing for the dead, anyway. It doesn't pass like it does for you and I, for them.
Eventually I got around to explaining to Sue that she had died in that house, and she didn't believe me. I asked her to consider a few things, like why she didn't leave with the former owners. Why was she okay living with this strange woman, and her kids being there too? I explained that those kids were NOT hers, but they were the new owner's children, and her own daughter was with her sister now.
She didn't fully grasp any of it, and was understandably upset by the end of that conversation. I asked her to think about what I had said, and told her I'd be back later to chat with her, another time soon.
The day grew late, and we wrapped up our visit as the kids got home from school. I placed a piece of black tourmaline on the front door to help prevent entry of anything new, before I could come back, just in case. I also asked Amber to consider if she was okay with Sue staying in the house or not, and she said she would, and I dipped out for the day.
A couple weeks passed as I arranged my plans and tried to line up a day that worked for both Beth and I to come out to the house together, but when it just wasn't aligning, I decided I could try to handle this one on my own. If needed, I would bring Beth by later for a second round. But spirits are more my thing than hers, and so are elementals, so overall it seemed to be more in my wheelhouse, anyway.
I did my research on the property, trying to find out if anything more had happened there, beyond Sue's untimely death, and found the land had been open and undeveloped, owned by some random company, since 1888. No ranchers used the land, or anything, it just sat empty from then until 2008 when the property was purchased by the neighborhood developer. The first building on that piece of land was the house, which was built in 2011, for the original owners, Marvin Frederickson and his wife, Sue Melbourne.
I was disappointed, and had been hoping some rancher, down on his luck, had sold the land to the developer or something. Alas, that time, there were no people to track down and ask questions of.
I wanted to know if anything strange had happened on the property. Did cattle gravitate anywhere, or avoid anywhere? That kind of thing. I wondered what kind of effect that elemental had on the land, before the houses arrived. I'll just have to keep wondering, I guess.
Amber's story doesn't end here! It got a bit longer than expected, so I'm breaking it up into at least 2 episodes for you, to make for easier reading or listening. Come back next time to hear how things went for her, after I left that day!
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I think that about wraps it up for tonight! Stay cozy by that fire there, and keep your blankets toasty! Head on up to bed when you're ready, but keep a wary eye out for that spot beside the closet... You never know who might be watching you sleep...
Until next time, this has been Beyond the Veil Paranormal Tales, with Becca! Sleep tight!
*The names in this story have been changed, to protect privacy. All other details of the stories remain true to fact.